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I'm a playwright who does journalism. A journalist who writes books. And a book writer who pens plays. Sat, 14 Sep 2019 02:40:36 +0000en
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September update: Shannon Forsell on the podcast, the return of ‘Going…Going…Gone,’ morehttps://louharry.com/2019/09/13/september-update-shannon-forsell-on-the-podcast-the-return-of-going-going-gone-more/
https://louharry.com/2019/09/13/september-update-shannon-forsell-on-the-podcast-the-return-of-going-going-gone-more/#respondSat, 14 Sep 2019 02:40:36 +0000http://louharry.com/?p=19935A quick update as we head round the corner on September:

–If you are seeing this the weekend I’m writing it, get over to the Aristocrat Pub for the first anniversary taping of the Lou Harry Gets Real podcast.

—“Going…Going…Gone: The Live Auction Comedy” is back. Sort of. We stepped away from the show after a five-year run when we lost our venue (long story). Well, we were just asked to do a holiday party in December by a business that we did the same for three years ago and had a rollicking good time. So we are opening the door to private parties, holiday or otherwise. Want to treat your team to a party like none they’ve experienced before? More info here.

–I’ve been doing a lot of writing about board games. Check out the Best Games of Gen Con from Indianapolis Monthly and a review of Watergate for Quill, the magazine of the Society of Professional Journalists. Coming shortly: Movie tie-in games in the first of a series of stories for Midwest Film Journal. Will update this post when it’s available.

–My annual A&E Season Preview is now available to IBJ subscribers. You can find it online here.

–And, circling back to the podcast, you can August’s Lou Harry Gets Real here. The episode features Tom Battista, Jimmy Buffett’s stage manager, Indy restauranteur and cultural visionary, the charming old time music group The Half Step Sisters delivering jaunty and sweet performances of four songs, and composer/actress Paige Scott.

And there’s more to come. Thanks for checking in.

]]>https://louharry.com/2019/09/13/september-update-shannon-forsell-on-the-podcast-the-return-of-going-going-gone-more/feed/0louharryblogGGG-logo-JPEG-cropped-768x302Stratford Festival between the covershttps://louharry.com/2019/08/23/stratford-festival-between-the-covers/
https://louharry.com/2019/08/23/stratford-festival-between-the-covers/#commentsFri, 23 Aug 2019 23:21:53 +0000http://louharry.com/?p=19907After my second trip to the Stratford Festival (theatrejones.com published my thoughts on the nine productions I saw here), I almost immediately began suffering with withdrawal symptoms.

A good thing, then, that I had a couple of books about the festival that i picked up on the trip.

And that they led me to more.

And them to more, making up much of the reading pile for my Shakespeare summer.

I’ll start with my most recent acquisition: A beat up copy of “Renown at Stratford” (Clarke, Irwin & Company) found via the terrific online used book outlet Discoverybooks.com.

Published in 1953, it offers a front row look at the first season of the festival, with essays penned by Tyrone Guthrie, Stratford’s first artistic director, and Robertson Davies, one of Canada’s most prominent novelists.

Guthrie gives us the history, told with style, humility, insight and humor. He shares how Stratford local Tom Patterson returned from his military stint in Europe with his eyes opened to the arts. “His perseverance was indomitable,” writes Guthrie, “His enthusiasm, boring to most, infected a few.”

Those few formed a committee and decided to bring in Guthrie, one of the best-known directors in the world, to consider this ambitious project.

“I expected that this would consist mainly of artistic and excitable elderly ladies of both sexes, with a sprinkling of Business Men to restrain the Artistic People from spending money. There would also be an Anxious Nonentity from the Town Hall briefed to see that no municipal funds were promised, but also to see that, if any success were achieved, the municipality would get plenty of credit.”

Guthrie was shocked, instead, to find unanimity in the townsfolk’s support of a festival. They decided to explore a tent theater intimately connecting audience to actors, accepted the idea that making back costs even within two years was unlikely, opted for two productions in the first season, and pushed for a cast that would primarily be Canadian with a limited number of others joining the ranks.

All that in the first meeting.

Already I feel like I’m getting wrapped up in details. Allow me to back up a little.

See, I was late to the Stratford party. After an ill-fated effort to partner with a tour company to take a group of Central Indiana folks there a few years back, I finally took a review trip there in 2017. A glorious production of “Twelfth Night,” a fun tour of the costume shop, and an all-hands-on-deck production of “Guys and Dolls” proved the highlights.

I felt not only like I was seeing terrific theater, but also that I was seeing rare theater. I’ve seen wonderful Shakespeare productions stateside, but rarely do I feel like I’m getting the full effect. There’s a kick to seeing, say, five actors performing “King Lear” in an hour and a half and clarity certainly wins in a “Hamlet” that removes all of the political context. But it’s difficult to fully bask in even the most successful of those truncated shows, especially when created on a limited budget.

From the beginning, Stratford committed itself to quality, bringing in Alec Guinness and Irene Worth to lead that first season’s company in productions of “Richard III” and “All’s Well that Ends Well.”

The second part of “Renown at Stratford” focuses on those two productions, pairing Robertson Davies essays with drawings by Grant MacDonald of costumed cast members. The essays are smart, quirky, and remarkably observant and the illustrations unique in their ability to capture actor attitudes, making this rare book a treasure of my theater collection.

One of the actors illustrated in the book played the small part of Sir Robert Brackenberry in “Richard III.” Of him, Davies writes “The portrait of the actor who played Brackenbury brings to the ear again his voice…It would be unjust to the other Canadian actors in the company to single out one of them for special commendation for his good speaking, but let William Hutt stand for all, like the soldier who receives a decoration in the name of his regiment.”

Little did Davies realize that the actor he singled out would become a Stratford cornerstone and one of Canada’s–hell, the English-speaking world’s–leading actors.

Because of his steady work almost exclusively in Canada, though, Hutt isn’t the theater-geek household name he should be.

While his Prospero, Titus, Tartuffe, and more are the stuff of legend from those north of the border, those elsewhere may only know him from his brilliant turn in the short-run series “Slings and Arrows” as the aging, heroine-addicted actor cast as Lear in the final season. Those with longer memories may have caught his James Tyrone in the Great Performances presentation of “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” in 1995.

Here’s hoping “William Hutt: Soldier Actor” (Guernica) by Keith Garebian, helps place him higher on the international theater radar to the place he, by all accounts, deserves. Garebian’s emptying-the-notebook biography, richly detailed almost to a fault, goes beyond just insight into the World War II hero (hence that half of the title), actor, and man.

Don’t get me wrong. It feels like we learn everything we need to learn about Hutt, his personal conflicts and his artistic challenges.

William Hutt in “The Tempest”

But, on another level, the book implicitly celebrates the notion of the career stage actor–an actor who, in a single season, can play Uncle Vanya, Don Armado (oh, to have seen Hutt in that that), Richard II, and a batch of other roles. Hutt performed in 12 plays in 1954, another eight the following year, including Macbeth and the Chorus Leader in “Oedipus Rex.” For Hutt, a slow year meant five plays.

Garebian deftly mixes biography with insight into the actor’s craft, analyzing performances while also allowing Hutt to speak for himself.

For example: “A pause that grows into a silence, when he seems to be doing nothing, shows a character thinking, not merely an actor working,” writes Garebian. “However, Hutt knew that actors are also themselves on stage.”

He then quotes Hutt: “I cannot pretend that I am not Bill Hutt on stage, but so long as I wrap myself in the experience and illuminate the audience that it is a different set of circumstances, to them I become a different person. You cannot perform Lear or Timon of Athens; you cannot perform Titus; you cannot perform Hamlet. All you can do is experience those roles.”

The ache of a biography, especially one so packed with ephemeral work, is loss. While his triumphs were many–including his Stratford swan song “Tempest,” the decline in Hutt’s health combined with the knowledge that much of his work is not available for posterity makes the final chapters difficult. Here’s where Garebian’s insight proves most necessary and welcome.

“Almost every major actor at a certain age (Redgrave, Gielgud, Olivier, and others) struggles to preserve a vital capacity for self-renewal and development,” he writes. “Hutt was different. Although he suffered physical afflictions in old age, he maintained his splendid vocal range and much of its power. His Prospero, to the very last word, was clear, distinct, and brilliantly modulated. but his voice was remarkable not only for its range and power; but it also acquired the correct tone for each role because it grew out of his thoughts and emotions as the character. By putting the truth of his feelings and thoughts first, the appropriate sound resulted naturally.”

Sometimes the voice is there but not the words. In one anecdote, Garebian recounts Hutt’s struggles with a playing the title role in the solo show “Clarence Darrow.”

“…there were two or three times when his memory failed. The solution was clever: Nora Polley, his dresser and stage manager, would stand behind a flat, and when he was lost, he would ask: “Where am I, Ruby?” in the most natural of voices, as if Darrow were addressing his late wife and seeking her ghostly help with his life. Then Polley would whisper a line, and the audience never guessed that this was not part of the script.”

In most theatrical biographies, a stage manager, at most, makes a brief anecdotal appearance.

But in what is perhaps the most unique book in my Stratford stack, that same Sarah Polley gets her own book.

“Whenever You’re Ready: Nora Polley on Life as a Stratford Festival Stage Manager” (ECW Press) offers a winning first-person look at this underrepresented but essential theatrical career path.

The authorship is a bit confusing. While told first-person through Polley, the book is credited to writer/actor Shawn DeSouza-Coelho. The rich detail and consistently engaging voice–in conjunction with the unique perspective–makes clear, though. that the reader is being parked in Polley’s heart and head.

That’s key to making “Whenever Your Ready” as much of a page-turner as it is. Polley doesn’t shy away from revealing the challenges of working with a string of artistic directors, each with a different set of expectations and demands. She’s smart, sensitive, playful and professional.

A stage manager–a good one–isn’t always appreciated. Yet they are the ones witnessing every performance, working to insure that audiences three weeks or three months into a run are given a performance as high-level as that of opening night.

She’s moving in her appreciation of both the work on stage and her contribution to it.

Regarding a performance by Martha Henry in the play “Dear Antoine,” Polley says, “From the darkness shrouding the stage, the audience applauded. And, as the actors bowed, I knew it wasn’t for me they clapped. It wasn’t for my closed book, my little lamp, or my tiny desk ghat they poured forth congratulations. Yet, night after night, Martha’s smile made me feel otherwise. night after night, it bridged the gap between my effort and their adulation…”

Among the Stratford artistic directors Polley worked for were John Neville (at the helm from 1985-90) and Richard Monette (1994-2007), each of which has a book devoted to him.

The title gives away some of the limitations of “John Neville Takes Command” by Robert A. Gaines (William Street Press).

In the forward, the author states “…historians must record contemporary events of significance at the time when they occur so that an accurate account, not only of what happened but of why those persons most closely associated with the event believed it happened, can be part of the permanent record.”

Often, though, it comes across as more record than read.

The book kicks off with a solid look at the planning of Neville’s first season–which included a “Hamlet” paired with “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead,” “A Man for All Seasons,” “The Winter’s Tale,” “The Boys from Syracuse” and more. It then takes a show-by-show approach.

The details are plentiful and especially commendable in the appreciation of the work of lighting and set designers. But Gaines’ prioritization of trees over forest made this the only book in the Stratford pile that encouraged me to skim.

The autobiography “This Rough Magic: The Making of an Artistic Director” (Stratford Shakespeare Festival of Canada) is quite different.

A ripping yard primarily covering the days leading up to Richard Monette’s appointment as Stratford’s backstage leading man, it’s filled with memorable tales from his acting days. Those include a lengthy look at the development of the notorious “Oh, Calcutta!” in which Monette–all of him–appeared. There’s also telling insight acquired during his time as a Stratford actor–including a notorious outburst when he publicly challenged the festival’s board of directors.

Rather then go into detail about his tenure at Stratford, he closes the book philosophically.

“Plays on the shelf are literature;” he writes, “only plays on a stage are theater. And a play on a stage without an audience is not a performance; it is only a rehearsal. To keep the doors open, therefore, and to persuade people to pass through them in the greatest possible numbers, is the first and most sacred duty of any artistic director. All else flows from that. If I had done nothing else in my tenure to be proud of, I would be proud of the fact that I have been a ‘people’s director’ who did everything I could to make audiences feel as much at home in the theatres of the Stratford Festival as I do myself.”

Alas, no sequel followed.

If all of this is too specific, there’s “Stratford Gold: 50 Years, 50 Stars, 50 Conversations” with Richard Ouzounian (McArthur & Company). The awkward “with” stems from the fact that the book grew out of a CBC series that the Toronto Star critic produced and hosted.

Brief interviews with festival founder Tom Patterson and theater designer Tanya Moiseiwitsch get things rolling. And while many of the names may be unfamiliar to those who don’t frequent Stratford, you don’t have to go far before finding a familiar name.

There’s Christopher Plummer, the festival’s first Hamlet. And Zoe Caldwell, a Stratford Cleopatra. Len Cariou was a Prospero here. And, prior to journeying to space, the final frontier, William Shatner, he played supporting roles in “Shrew,” “Merchant,” and “Henry V.”

But it’s the career Stratfordians such as Hutt that I find the most fascinating.

A favorite twice-removed story: Novelist Timothy Findley, who acted in the fest’s first season, shares a story about an experience with William Hutt.

“We had seen a performance of ‘King Lear’ that was awful….hanging on the curtain and real tears at the end of the play with Cordelia and so on. And I said, ‘Bill, why doesn’t that work? Why didn’t it work?’ And Bill said, ‘Well, he just went ‘do re me fa so la ti do,’ but the actor’s real job is to go ‘do re me fa so la ti’ and let the audience go ‘do.'”

“This is something I believe very strongly,” said 20-year-Stratford vet Barry MacGregor, “that if all actors give on a stage, then they all receive. And if they all receive, the audience will receive a hundredfold.”

Ah, to have received more of these performances.

Thank goodness many of them have been preserved, expertly, for movie theater and hope screening. Here’s a piece I wrote for Howlround about the production process. And many of the recent entries in the filmed series can be found at www.broadwayhd.com.

]]>https://louharry.com/2019/08/23/stratford-festival-between-the-covers/feed/220190823_181221louharryblogHuttWheneverstratford-526999_960_720Pushback…and some updatinghttps://louharry.com/2019/08/13/pushback-and-some-updating/
https://louharry.com/2019/08/13/pushback-and-some-updating/#respondTue, 13 Aug 2019 21:15:53 +0000http://louharry.com/?p=19904I’ve gotten some pushback (okay, nudgeback) about not reviewing any Indy Fringe shows this year. And for being more selective about what other arts events I write about.

I thought maybe some clarification might be in order.

Here’s the situation: With a few exceptions, I’m no longer getting paid to review, except by some non-Indy markets.

“But you get free tickets, isn’t that enough?” I’ve heard said.

Well, not really. Attending and taking the time to write thoughtfully about a show takes multiple hours. Say what you want about my writing, but I don’t do thumbs up/thumbs down and plot description. That’s not my thing. I’m passionate about theater and love writing about it, but there are only so many hours in a week.

Finding the time for that kind of writing poses a greater challenge now that I’m back to a 40-plus hour workday, especially with other projects in the mix (SiteLines, Indy Actors’ Playground, the Lou Harry Gets Real podcast, my own play writing and other paid freelance work). It is difficult to turn down paid freelance work to make time for additional unpaid reviewing.

In short, I will continue to review–for www.louharry.com, on social media, and for other markets that will have me. But you won’t see the quantity of writing I produced while at IBJ, when it was a part of my full-time job.

So please know that:

1) My not attending your show is nothing personal.

2) I will continue to write about projects that excite me, as time permits.

3) If you want to keep me on your press list and invite me to shows–and you are comfortable with a review at www.louharry.com, my thoughts shared via social media, and/ or simply attending in order to add to my working knowledge of the theater and the talent involved in the production–please do continue. I won’t ask for tickets if not invited–unless I know for sure I will be reviewing.

4) I’m still doing IBJ’s A&E Season Preview, which will be out in a few weeks.

5) I include a Cultural Update as a sideline podcast highlighting area arts events that I believe look promising. So keep the notices coming via louharrywriter@gmail.com.

6.) I am still on the ExCom of the American Theatre Critics Association and chair its New Play Committee, so I remain administrator for the Steinberg and Osborn Awards, vote on recommendations for the regional Tony Award and Theatre Hall of Fame, and will, I hope, soon try to pull together another Indianapolis conference with out-of-town critics

Keep creating.

As always,

Lou

]]>https://louharry.com/2019/08/13/pushback-and-some-updating/feed/0louharryblogpushbackCirque du Soleil on Ice: ‘Crystal’ at Bankers Life Fieldhousehttps://louharry.com/2019/07/26/cirque-du-soleil-on-ice-crystal-at-bankers-life-fieldhouse/
https://louharry.com/2019/07/26/cirque-du-soleil-on-ice-crystal-at-bankers-life-fieldhouse/#respondFri, 26 Jul 2019 23:26:06 +0000http://louharry.com/?p=19896Given the superhuman actions that make up the bulk of even the least of the Cirque du Soleil touring shows, I’ve always felt a bit guilty feeling bored by them.

Not entirely bored. Much of the time watching them, I am in awe. Occasionally, I’ve been knocked out by the visual poetry.

But there seems to always be a spot somewhere in the middle of the second act when the last thread of an already thin narrative gets tossed aside, someone is doing a one-handed handstand on another fella’s forehead or some such, and the wonder somehow drains.

It’s possible, I’ve learned, to be over-amazed.

I’m happy to report that that didn’t happen in “Crystal,” Cirque’s ice rink-anchored show that visited Bankers Life Fieldhouse (July 24-28).

With elements of “The Wizard of Oz,” “Alice in Wonderland,” and “Rollerball” (yes, “Rollerball”) “Crystal” loosely follows a dissatisfied young woman who falls through a crack in the ice into a world of, well, Cirque acts and psychobabble.

There’s joyous juggling to klezmer music, a hockey-ish match where ramps send players into the air while Irish tunes blast, a briefcase brigade, and poll climbers and chair stackers who effective do what seems impossible–and then raise the stakes even higher.

There’s also some incoherent stuff about a magic pen. And narration that seems to come from the Marianne Williamson’s playbook (“My thoughts become their actions. I can write my own joy…”).

There’s a beautifully choreographed duet that, well, just check out this image…

It’s only marred by its song choice. While the music to “Halo” fits well with the highlight of the show, the English language lyrics took part of the magic and mystery away for me. I prefer Cirque when it speaks in its own voice, one that seems to exist only within the confines of the world the show creates.

Song choice proved even more problematic earlier in the show when Sia’s “Chandelier” added a clearly unintended meaning. Were we really to believe our heroine was binge drinking under the ice?

Mixed messages aside, though, “Crystal” moves with grace and good humor. It keeps the visuals surprising and interesting and the ice floor helps give it a smooth otherworldliness that other Cirque tours have lacked.

Committed performances help, too. Also unlike other Cirque shows, I never felt like the talent was just an act dropped into the show. The performers seemed truly engaged, not just showing off their remarkable skills.

e) selling my own books (but not very assertively since I won’t have much time to hang out at my table in Authors’ Alley)

f) playing games

Second (and semi-related), I believe I originally met author Maurice Broaddus at InCon many years ago. He’s recently had breakout success and it was a pleasure shadowing him, learning more about his work both on and off the page, and writing about him for a profile in the July Indianapolis Monthly, on newsstands now. (Are there still newsstands?)

Third, you’ll soon find my review of nine plays–yes, nine–at the Stratford Festival. It will be posted at TheatreJones.com soon.

I also have a piece coming up on Midwest Film Journal on an unusual new film/theater hybrid. Again, posting soon.

]]>https://louharry.com/2019/07/01/bard-fantasy-an-indy-sci-fi-breakout-and-more/feed/0louharryblogIndianapolis-Monthly-June-2019Do you believe in (winning free tickets to) “Yesterday”?https://louharry.com/2019/06/13/do-you-believe-in-winning-free-tickets-to-the-new-film-yesterday/
https://louharry.com/2019/06/13/do-you-believe-in-winning-free-tickets-to-the-new-film-yesterday/#respondFri, 14 Jun 2019 00:22:06 +0000http://louharry.com/?p=19888In what may be the best high-concept ideas for a movie since “Groundhog Day,” Danny Boyle’s “Yesterday” concerns a musician who discovers that he is the only person who knows the music of the Beatles.

It’s a film I’m looking forward to seeing. If you are, too, then here’s a chance to be ahead of opening day.

I’ve got 25 pairs of tickets to give away for a special sneak preview to the first folks who register. Just click here and follow the instructions.

Good luck. Thanks for reading.

Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da.

]]>https://louharry.com/2019/06/13/do-you-believe-in-winning-free-tickets-to-the-new-film-yesterday/feed/0louharryblogThe day after ‘Bloomsday’https://louharry.com/2019/06/10/the-day-after-bloomsday/
https://louharry.com/2019/06/10/the-day-after-bloomsday/#respondTue, 11 Jun 2019 03:04:02 +0000http://louharry.com/?p=19885The day after a show closes is hard.

It’s even harder when that show is a one-night-only event.

Last night, SiteLines Indy in partnership with the Lou Harry Gets Real podcast presented Steven Dietz’s “Bloomsday.” For years–ever since reading this magical play and meeting the playwright when I presented him with a Steinberg Award citation (and a nice check) for the play–I’ve wanted to see the play performed in a pub.

Since no one else seemed to want to do that, I figured I’d do it myself. Well, not myself. It wouldn’t have happened without my podcast producer Patrick Chastain, who nudged me in the direction I wanted to go and made sure that we had the venue and the audience and the financing to support the project.

Casting should have been tricky. The play required not just two women who could nail Irish accents but also two women who believably could play the same person 35 years apart. And two men who could also play the same guy at 20 and 55. It required actors who could inseparably play the ache and the humor of Dietz’ full-blooded characters.

I said “should have been tricky.” But it wasn’t. I got my first choice for all for spots–Adam Crowe, Beverly Roche, Frankie Bolda and Ryan Claus. Their work started out strong and got richer through both (yes, there were only two) of our rehearsals and rose even higher and dug even deeper for the performance.

I didn’t have the best seat. But I had a great seat. From my position in the front, facing the audience (I was reading minimally necessary stage directions). I could see the tears wiped away. I could see the leaning in. I could see the surprise and the laughs. I could see the joy.

Last night was thrilling for me.

Today has been hard.

Because, like the characters in the play, I’m wrestling with a moment that’s gone.

But that’s what theater is. That’s what life is.

And that’s why I love both.

I’m committed to doing more play readings at the Aristocrat, our home pub. I firmly believe that they can be as powerful as full productions as they strip the art to writer and actor. (That’s no slight on costumers, scenic designers, etc.–this is a plus, not an instead.) I still believe people are hungry for stories. They are hungry for human connection. And there’s glory in being in a room when a story is coming to life.

Maybe we’ll do “Bloomsday” again next year. Maybe not.

Whatever is next, I know I must remember James Joyce’s words, as used by Dietz and beautifully delivered by Adam Crowe. These three voices shared what Joyce imagined a dead man in a coffin might be thinking:

Now, though, I want to tell you about what’s happening at this year’s InConjunction.

The fan-focused science fiction and fantasy convention (held July 5-7) has, once again, asked me back as a guest. And every year I’m there I try to mix established programs with new stuff.

On the established side, I’ll once again be auctioneer for the Saturday charity auction, this year benefiting Indy Reads as well as the Kurt Vonnegut Museum & Library. If you have anything to add to the auction–memorability, tickets, games, toys, books, whatever–touch base. I look forward to helping turn each item into funds for these worthy causes as well as to put cool items into the hands of fans.

I’ll also be bringing back my annual SF/Fantasy/Horror Pub Trivia competition, this time on Sunday.

Shakespeare Theatre Company’s The Tempest. Photo: Scott Suchman.

New to the mix will be a panel on The Fantasy Worlds of Williams Shakespeare (with director/ actor Doug Powers. Also, I’m updating one I did a few years back on Science Fiction and Fantasy Musicals and serving as a panelist for one on book publishing.

In and around all of this, I’ll be playing board games. Perhaps, with you.

]]>https://louharry.com/2019/06/01/shakespearean-fantasies-magic-musicals-epic-trivia-incomparable-programming-at-inconjunction/feed/0louharryblogtempestA play in a pub: ‘Bloomsday’ coming June 9 for one-night onlyhttps://louharry.com/2019/05/23/a-play-in-a-pub-bloomsday-coming-june-9-for-one-night-only/
https://louharry.com/2019/05/23/a-play-in-a-pub-bloomsday-coming-june-9-for-one-night-only/#respondFri, 24 May 2019 00:04:16 +0000http://louharry.com/?p=19877A few years ago, I fell in love with a play by Steven Dietz called “Bloomsday.”

Ever since reading it (and rereading it…and rereading it), I’ve wanted to stage it in a pub.

Why?

Because “Bloomsday” is set during a celebration of that famous (to literary folks, at least) day when fictional Leopold Bloom wandered around Dublin in James Joyce’s “Ulysses.” And it just felt right that an audience should be able to drink a cold one while watching this magical, beautiful, sad, funny piece of theater.

It’s a love story. It’s a loss story. There’s a bit of the supernatural in its DNA. It’s a play where the sounds and smells and sights of Dublin come alive as a down-on-himself American tourist and a yearning-to-escape young Irish tour guide not only share a brief encounter, but also share the stage with their 35-years-later selves.

I won’t say more about the plot.

And so time passed (and, appropriately, this play is very much about time) and the circumstances finally arose for presenting the play. With the Lou Harry Gets Real podcast on summer hiatus, the upstairs room at the Aristocrat Pub was open and the owners up for something adventurous.

In this episode, we discuss the human and economic costs that arise from the United States’ dependence on oil. Ballard explores this topic in great depth in his new book Less Oil or More Caskets(IU Press).

Singer-songwriter (and bio scientist) Cam Melton offers live performances of three original songs from his EP, Southern Sessions.

In this episode you’ll learn:

What Mayor Ballard thinks of Mayor Pete Buttigieg.

Why domestic oil production does nothing to solve the economic, environmental and human costs associated with a petroleum-based economy.

Whether electric vehicles (EVs) are the answer to solving our dependence on oil.

Why politicians (on both sides of the aisle) are not motivated to solve the world’s energy problems.

Whether Greg Ballard plans to enter politics again.

And, as always, there’s a punny segment.

Recorded before a live audience, April 14, 2019, in the Oxford Room above the Aristocrat Pub in Indianapolis.